Blood Elves still have their original BC models, and will not be updated until a later patch, though it's most likely they will come soon. I expect them to be along by 6.1.
As someone whose main has been a male human paladin since vanilla (ok, there was a time in BC when my main was the Undead rogue and in Mists he's kind of shared that status with the DK,) it was with great anticipation and nervousness that I checked out my guy's new look.
The male human has long been a focus of complaints, though frankly, I never really understood why it was so reviled in comparison to, say, the female troll. The new model look significantly more modern. At the moment, a lot of the expressions on the faces look a bit similar, but then again, that was the case for the old models as well. I think that the whole "same face" thing is blown a little out of proportion, but I'll be relatively content if my guy winds up looking roughly the way he does in the beta. The only really weird thing is that I feel like my old model has lighter hair. Luckily, that's a quick fix in the barber shop.
Human males in particular have got great facial animations, sometimes raising an eyebrow or smirking a little with certain emotes. I also tested out the Male Troll and Male Night Elf. The troll likewise is very expressive now - really the only complaint I have about the troll is that the two-tone white/blue hair seems to have been either consolidated into a simple blue or a simple grey. The Night Elf (which we have not yet had an Artcraft for) seems like it needs the most polish, and the face seems a little stiff when emoting, compared to the other very expressive new models (again, male humans look wonderful when emoting.)
Running and casting animations also feel a lot smoother. Forgive the favoritism here, as human male is the most important of these revamps to me, but it's great to see that humans actually look like they're running when they do. No longer are their arms glued to their sides at the elbow. Oh! And their absurd forearms have been dialed back a bit so that they have wrists and joints and all that.
I'm not sure that my guy really looks that much like he did, but this was one of the models getting a pretty extensive revamp, so that's to be expected a little.
I've been going with a different haircut and facial hair option lately, but here's a look at Jarsus with his original coif on the new model (also, yes, that sword model is bugged. It should be pointed in the opposite direction. It looks fine when I'm holding it.)
In other Beta news:
The log-in screen has been implemented. In the grand tradition of vanilla and BC, the Warlords log-in screen shows the Red Dark Portal (Draenor side.) There's actually pretty cool animation where it activates when you first get to the screen. Additionally, the character-select background settings for Dwarves, Night Elves, Undead, Orcs, and Tauren have all been updated a little, adding more modern visual effects, like fog and a glowing purple lantern in the Undead one or a more detailed battlefield for the Orcs. The Tauren have had their second relocation (after their select screen was changed during Cataclysm,) and they appear to be on some rise in Thunder Bluff, perhaps.
A lot of voice-acting has been added to the game. So far I've heard new voices for Maraad, Yrel, Cordana Felsong, Baros Alexander, and several of the Arrakoa Outcast NPCs, as well as a new generic Arrakoa Outcast NPC voice. Additionally, Soulbinder Tulaani (an NPC in Talador who can become a follower) and one of the Rangari (also a follower, I believe a character from Gorgrond) have unique voices. I can only assume other figures like Khadgar and Durotan will have their own as well. Hopefully Thrall will get some new ones, because I'm a little sick of "Hello, friend. What is it you wish?" (For those of you who started playing in Cataclysm or later, back when Thrall was Warchief and in Orgrimmar, that was just one of his emotes. Another used to be "Welcome to Orgrimmar, have you come to serve the Horde?" but given that Thrall hasn't really been in Orgrimmar since then, it doesn't really work.
Garrisons seem to be in the late pupal stage of development, and are just about ready to come out of their cocoon. Most of the buildings have some kind of interactive function, like daily dungeon quests from the Inn or tasks to gather armor scraps at the Armory. I have to say, there are enough interesting buildings that I actually do anticipate it being difficult to decide what to get, which is a good sign.
Professions still need a little implementation. I can't get any new Engineering recipes. Also, the Enchanter NPC at my garrison is ignoring me.
Gear in dungeons and raids has not been implemented, or at least has not been added to the Dungeon Journal.
As usual, there are a couple bugs here and there (sadly one that is preventing me from progressing through Spires of Arak on my Paladin.) But I can see why they were confident enough to announce a release date this month. I am very confident that everything will be in place for November 13th.
I'm eager for November to get here. Not just so that I can play the expansion for real, but also so that I can delete this massive second copy of the game from my poor, overcrowded hard drive (though I hope I have my new computer by then.)
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